The present invention is generally directed to incentive programs for enabling both bank customers and non-bank customers to earn promotional awards. More particularly, the present invention is related to techniques for providing personalized promotional awards to bank customers for specific triggering behaviors, and for providing promotional awards to non-customers when using bank services.
There is a recognized need in the financial services industry to attract and retain loyal customers. A loyal customer is one who uses a single Bank for all or a significant number of banking relationships and does so over an extended period of time. The attraction and retention of loyal customers is particularly important to Banks that compete in highly competitive markets where customers are offered a wide variety of investment and other banking relationship options, some of which may individually be very enticing to existing customers of other banks.
Incentive programs, comprising of rewards and/or promotions may be used by various merchants to stimulate potential customers and to maintain the interest of existing customers. Rewards are typically given to customers by merchants for various reasons, including to encourage certain customer behaviors and to strengthen relationships between Banks and customers. Rewards can also be used to strengthen the relationships between merchants and customers, such as when a Bank offers a merchant-related reward such as a gift card, or for example, when a merchant or affiliated Bank offers a reward for using a particular credit card with the merchant.
Promotions may be directed at both existing and potential customers, and often center around “give-aways” and prizes. Promotions generally cause consumer interest in a merchant or a product of a merchant who may leverage this interest in an effort to generate new customers.
Incentive programs for rewarding existing customers have become increasingly common in a variety of industries. Well known examples are airline frequent flyer programs. In airline frequent flyer programs the customer is awarded points, often expressed in terms of “miles traveled” for each use of a particular airline or its partners or affiliates. Additional points or “miles” are awarded for use of ancillary services such as car and hotel room rentals.
Other well-known examples of promotions range from the Publisher's Clearing House™ Sweepstakes to McDonalds's™ Monopoly™ program.
However, the implementation of rewards and promotional programs directed at Bank customers has complexities not found in other industries. The relationships between the Bank and any customer may be quite numerous and complex, involving a number of different kinds of accounts and interactions. Additionally, unlike retail shopping, Bank customers are less likely to switch Banks based upon a generic promotion.
For an incentive program to be effective as a tool for both attracting potential customers and retaining existing customers, it may be desirable for the Bank to be able to monitor customer behaviors and the relationships between the Bank and its customers, so that the Bank may identify significant opportunities for marketing its financial services.
It may further be desirable for both existing and potential customers to track and manage their incentive programs. In addition to presenting the existing or potential customer with more control over the incentive program, providing customers with the ability to manage their incentive programs may provide the Bank with another channel of communication through which to reach existing and potential customers. It is known for Banks to develop incentive programs to attract and retain customers, typically consisting of a financial product such as a credit card that may allow customers to earn rewards in a predetermined rewards system. For instance, it is known in the art to offer a 1% cash rebate each time a customer uses a platinum credit card issued by the Bank. Such systems are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,372, to Burton et al., and assigned to Meridian Enterprises, Inc.
However, the known universe of reward-earning behaviors for such incentive programs is generally limited. Rewards are typically earned by charging transactions on a credit card account. Alternatively, rewards may be earned by performing certain tasks or exhibiting certain behaviors, such as by opening a bank account.
Known incentive programs generally have little penetration into the supply of potential customers. However, automated banking machines are well known, and are used by both existing and potential customers alike. A common type of automated banking machine used by consumers is an Automated Teller Machine (hereinafter “ATM”). ATMs enable both existing and potential customers to carry out a variety of banking transactions by interacting with the machine rather than a human teller. Examples of banking transactions that are commonly carried out using ATMs include withdrawals, deposits, transfer of funds between accounts, payment of bills, and account balance inquiries. Accordingly, it is desirable to use ATMs as a distribution vehicle for incentive programs.
Moreover, prior art incentive programs typically have limited reward-earning behaviors that earn limited rewards. A robust and efficient system of offering a plurality of incentive programs wherein the incentive programs enable existing and potential customers to earn a variety of rewards by accomplishing a variety of behaviors and/or transactions is desirable. It is further desirable to have an incentive program system that is customizable across a wide variety of variables.
Customers, as described above, may have one or more rewards accounts with a financial institution. Typically, a customer is not able to access such rewards accounts at an ATM, which is used as described above for access to the customer's other accounts. This results in inconvenience to the customer since they have to use alternative methods to access the rewards accounts and conduct transactions therewith. Providing a customer access to their rewards accounts at an ATM and the ability to conduct transactions against the rewards account is desirable.